The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1887-09-25
GOD In HISTORY.
BY GASKELL.
ARTICLE I.

n II L " II II L,
The subject of these articles is in
tended to be God in History" There are
but few people in the civilized portions
of the world who believe not in and
acknowledge an oversight, an overrul-
ing providence, or heavenly guidance
of some kind or another, in earthly af-
fairs. The humble and sincere
believer in Christ looks up to
God as the author and dis
penser of all gifts, carnal and spiritual
and the final disposer of all events.
The infidel, or rather the atheist, may
attribute the beautiful, grand and har-
monious workings of the universe, the
revolutions and changes of the physical
life of our world and our different
phases of society, to what they call
natural laws, or, looking higher, to
Nature herself. We will, however, call
that providence God, looking beyond
nature to natures God: and, it is of the
visible workings of His hand, visible in
mutations and changes, more par
ticularly of the religious nature
of man as recorded in tn
long, and alas! many time
crime-stained annals of the past, thai
we would write. How from evil has
evolved good, from darkness has
sprung light, and how from the wild
Unsuitable, bloody ambition of unscru
pulous men have resulted, or COM
forth, the fair fruits of liberty and
peace. And each age has added littlr
to the sum total of the blessings we to-
day enjoy-day slowly emerging from
the dark night of unbelief INTO the light
of knowledge and conviction.
1t is not necessary to go back alone to
the sacred records of the Bible to dis
cover the original condition of man :;
nor as viewed in the light of our pres
ent civilization, the state of simplicity
and we may indeed say, savagery, from
which man has emerged. There are
other evidences Independent OF tht
Bible, but which ascribe higher an
tiquity to the appearance of man on
the earth than the chronology of Arch
bishop Fisher. Records which, if true
go to show that not only was man on
the earth 1904 years B. c., but for Il
long and indefinite period before. Nor
can we see how such a belief can un-
settle faith in the holy records, for its
divinity depends not upon when the
creation was, so much as why, what
measure and who by. That period
must have been tens of thousands OF
years longer than the generally &C
cepted chronology of Biblical rendering
of time; yet in other particulars all dis
coveries so far go to prove the truthful
ness of that account itself. Belief in
when such an important event TOOK
place is harmless, entails no disastrous
results upon posterity, nor could any
words of mine, nor of any finite mind
knowledge alone, take from or add an
iota to the force and eloquence of the
inspired writers of that book. But, in
passing, we may say, no one mead fear
the consequences of what is called
conflict between science and religion.
All the researches of science 60 % prove
the truthfulness and reliability of the
historical parts of the Bible. The only
possible conflict is on the when aud
how of creation, but not of the order of
creation. for every S, &c proclalms, as
the Bible says, thai an was the last
and GROWING labor 81 that creation.
The ruins of Egypt, and Assyria and
Babalonia, as the learning of the pre-
sent age deciphers them, show that the
belief in the creation, such as is re
corded in Genesis, was widespread,
if not almost universal, among the
earlier civilized nations of antiquity.
So likewise as regarding the flood;
though particulars, scenes and names
vary there is scarcely any nation, max
Jog any pretensions to historical
knowledge, where there exists not
tradition, a legend or myth, faint
though it be, of such a phenomenon,
at some remote period of prehistoric
times, having happened. The belief
may be changed in form, many times
mansled and distorted from the Biblical
form, to suit the conditions and ext
geucies of each particular people, but
still retaining some resemblance and
still showing how universal and wide
spread was this belief. And our reason
tells us there must have been genuine
where we find so many counterfeits;
the fact OF resemblance in the differ
ent regions of the ancient world ap
preaching to or departing from the
original Biblical standard in ratio with
its approximation of the truth, or the
increase of man-made error.
We will not go back to the dim OBJ
security of prehistoric times, but take
mankind as they existed and were des-
cribed at the period our known
history takes up the narrative. Then
men and nations begun to have local
habitation and a name. Population
was few and sparsely settled. Cities
were in manner unknown. In simple,
patriarchal state men wandered along
the fertile meadows of meandering
streams, by placid lake or rolling river:
They moved wherever vegetation was OF
the densest and most luxuriant growth,
wandering with their focks and herds
as inclination or necessity called them.
They were subject to the head of the
family, in a patriarchal form, either as
family or nation. AS the ties of blood
and consanguinuity became enlarged
and the degrees of relationship became
more complex, as their numbers in
creased, the ambition of the leaders be-
came more and more clearly defined,
and as ties of natural association
weakened by extension-the artificial
forms of society became more and more
complex and strange, and ceremonial
manners and customs multiplied amor 6
the people of the earth.
Whnthpr there has Or has not hPpO a